Английский с А. Конан Дойлем. Пиратские истории

 All night he lay in the curve of the bilge listening to the rush of the water and the straining of the timbers which told him that the ship was at sea, and driving fast. In the early morning some one came crawling to him in the darkness over the heaps of sails.

“Here’s rum and biscuits,” said the voice of his late mate. “It’s at the risk of my life, Master Craddock, that I bring them to you.”

“It was you who trapped me and caught me as in a snare!” cried Craddock (это ты заманил и поймал меня в западню! – воскликнул Крэддок; to catch). “How shall you answer for what you have done (как ты ответишь за то, что совершил)?”

“What I did I did with the point of a knife betwixt my blade-bones (я сделал это с острием ножа между лопатками; betwixt /устар./ = between).”

“God forgive you for a coward, Joshua Hird (Бог простит тебя за трусость, Джошуа Хирд). How came you into their hands (как ты попал к ним в руки)?”

 “It was you who trapped me and caught me as in a snare!” cried Craddock. “How shall you answer for what you have done?”

“What I did I did with the point of a knife betwixt my blade-bones.”

“God forgive you for a coward, Joshua Hird. How came you into their hands?”

“Why, Master Craddock, the pirate ship came back from its careening (да вот, капитан Крэддок, пиратский корабль вернулся после кренгования) upon the very day that you left us (в тот самый день, когда вы покинули нас = когда вы ушли вглубь острова). They laid us aboard (они взяли нас на абордаж; to lay aboard – встать борт о борт к судну для абордажа), and, short-handed as we were, with the best of the men ashore with you (а нас было мало, потому что лучшие люди отправились на берег с вами; short-handed – неукомплектованный штатами, испытывающий недостаток в рабочей силе), we could offer but a poor defence (и мы не могли дать достойный отпор: «мы смогли предложить лишь плохую защиту»; poor – бедный; плохой). Some were cut down, and they were the happiest (некоторых зарубили /сразу/, и они оказались самыми счастливыми). The others were killed afterwards (других убили позже). As to me, I saved my life by signing on with them (а что до меня, я спас свою жизнь, подписав с ними /договор/).”

 “Why, Master Craddock, the pirate ship came back from its careening upon the very day that you left us. They laid us aboard, and, short-handed as we were, with the best of the men ashore with you, we could offer but a poor defence. Some were cut down, and they were the happiest. The others were killed afterwards. As to me, I saved my life by signing on with them.”

“And they scuttled my ship (и они затопили мой корабль)?”